When new ownership and management started making changes to their mobile home park’s policies and rent, residents of Del Cielo Mobile Estates in Orcutt spoke up. First, they went to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors with their concerns about the park becoming an all-ages community, and the board made changes to local policy.
Next, the residents spoke up when the rental fees for their spaces started increasing—and some of those increases looked like they came from money the owner was paying to fight the county’s ordinance.
That’s when the county facilitated an eight-hour arbitration hearing in January between the residents and ownership. The arbitrator eventually ruled that instead of the $39 monthly rent increase residents faced, $24 was a fair amount. But the ownership appealed to the Board of Supervisors.
Now, the dispute is over. Maybe. It’s at least reached a milestone. The county denied Del Cielo Manufactured Housing Community LLC’s appeals and unanimously upheld the arbitrator’s verdict.
The county basically found that arbitrator John Derrick did what he was supposed to do—he did not, as Del Cielo’s owners argued, abuse his authority while misinterpreting the county’s mobile home rent control ordinance. Neither did he mislabel a line item in Del Cielo’s operating expenses.
If the owners knew their boundaries, they wouldn’t have tried to pass a $20,000 “broker’s commission” on to the residents. That money was tied to the sale of the park before the LLC actually took ownership.
If the residents hadn’t spoken up, they’d likely be facing higher rents and a lowered quality of life.
Speaking of boundaries, the Natural Resources Defense Council is teaming up with the Northern Chumash Tribal Council to lobby for Point Sal to receive extra protected status.
In early May, representatives from the two groups spoke at the California Fish and Game Commission meeting asking for the waters off the coast between Rancho Guadalupe Dunes and Vandenberg Space Force Base to become a state marine conservation area.
“Point Sal emerged as a really special place with really strong connections to Chumash heritage and identity, and a place that was pristine and beloved by locals,” said Sandy Aylesworth with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It was for that reason that we thought that Point Sal might be a promising area to have a new marine protected area.”
Local fishers also spoke up at the recent meeting, asking for the state commission to consider not adding extra protections on an area that falls within the relatively new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. If this state conservation area goes forward, fishers said, their way of life will go kaput.
“I consider myself a marine steward, even though I’m a taker of the ocean,” said Wayne Blicha, owner of Flying Fish Sportfishing. “Point Sal represents a very important fishery to us and our clientele.”
Keep speaking up. Who knows—maybe, like the Del Cielo residents, those voices can help a compromise be reached.
The Canary loves compromise. Send middle ground to canary@santamarisun.com.
This article appears in July 2 – July 9, 2026.
